Ibragim Todashev, a friend of deceased Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, told police that Tsarnaev participated in a triple murder in 2011.
Todashev was killed by an FBI agent who was interviewing him in May. His death is under investigation. Tsarnaev was killed days after the April 15 bombings.
After the attack, police began taking a closer look at whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who knew the Waltham, Mass., murder victims, was involved in that case.
Todashev's statement that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was involved in the murders was previously reported. But a court filing this week was the first confirmation.
"According to Todashev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham homicides," prosecutors said in the filing, though officials did not elaborate.
The federal prosecutors' statement came in response to a motion filed by attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev seeking to compel the release of prosecution evidence.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tamerlan's younger brother, faces federal charges and sought the evidence to prepare his defense, but prosecutors opposed the motion.
"The Middlesex District Attorney's office is engaged in an active, ongoing investigation into the Waltham triple homicide," prosecutors said Wednesday.
"Disclosure of the details of that investigation could jeopardize it."
"Any benefit to Tsarnaev of knowing more about the precise 'nature and extent' of his brother's involvement does not outweigh the potential harm."
The three Waltham murder victims' throats were slit in the early evening hours of September 11, 2011, the Boston Globe reported in June of this year.
For the next 18 months the investigation seemed to go nowhere.
Then officials began to look at Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who, along with his brother, is accused of killing three and wounding 260 others in the April 2013 blasts.
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